Gawker, the parent company behind tech site Gizmodo, has said this weekend that they have reached an agreement with authorities in California where they will give all material relevant to the investigation, in exchange for receiving back items seized from editor Jason Chen's home.

In April, Gizmodo leaked a prototype iPhone 4 model to the world, and within the month, California's Rapid Enforcement Allied Computer Team had seized Chen's computers, working on a warrant from the Superior Court of San Mateo.

The iPhone 4 model was dropped in a bar by Apple developer Gray Powell, and eventually purchased by Gizmodo for $5000 USD.

On request from Apple, the district attorney's office had opened an investigation into whether Gawker had done anything illegal in the matter.

The warrant has been withdrawn now, with Chen's belongings returned to him.

"Mr. Chen and Gizmodo have agreed to cooperate with our investigation," adds Chris Feasel, deputy district attorney for San Mateo County.

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In late June, Microsoft confirmed they were pulling the plug on the Kin One and Kin Two smartphones, after sales fell well below expectations.

Additionally, the Kin phones will not make it to Europe as promised, and the entire Kin team has been moved over to the company's Windows Phone 7 division.

Today, the devices have seen the last nail in their respective coffins, as Verizon has opted to return all unsold devices to Microsoft, with online and in-store sales suspended as of this weekend.

Although it is still unclear how many Kin devices were sold, but nearly all estimates put units sold between 503 and 9000, an incredibly low number for a device sold on the nation's most popular network.

Verizon is now only selling some accessories for the phones.

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Facebook will announce this week that the social networking giant has reached 500 million members, a gigantic milestone projected for 2010 earlier in the year.

As a way to celebrate the achievement, the company will launch "Facebook Stories," a "visual memorial" to the ways that the site has changed people's lives for the better.

The figures come from Facebook marketing boss Randi Zuckerberg last week, who says while past announcements have just been about the numbers, this announcement will be "about the users."

Facebook Stories will sort user-submitted stories by location and theme.

A few of the themes are "finding love" and "natural disasters," and the stories will be capped at 420 characters, the same as a status update.

You can already submit stories here: Facebook Stories

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Apple CEO Steve Jobs has said this weekend that the company must delay its South Korean launch of the iPhone 4, as they still cannot secure government approval in that nation.

"It's going to take just a little bit longer to get government approval there," notes Jobs.

South Korea was one of the eighteen nations that had a July release date for the popular smartphone.

The other 17 still have active July release dates set.

KT, the exclusive carrier for the device in South Korea would not give a time frame for release: "I believe you were confounded by the news that the iPhone 4 launch is delayed. But it does not change (the fact) that the iPhone 4 will be launched."

The nation saw their first iPhone, the 3GS offered in 2009, almost three years after the launch of the original iPhone.

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In late May we reported that "Hurt Locker" producer Voltage Pictures was suing thousands of alleged pirates for downloading the film online.

Voltage sued 5000 unidentified pirates accused of downloading the 2009 Best Picture, and the company said a lot more were coming.

The movie was leaked to the Internet, in full DVD quality, about 6 months before its nationwide release in the U.S. Despite winning Best Picture, the film only grossed $17 million USD domestic in theaters.

Voltage is backed by the U.S. Copyright Group, a group devoted to suing alleged pirates on behalf of independent film production companies.

After the pirates were identified by their IP addresses they were sent letters demanding $1500 to settle. If the case eventually goes to court, Voltage says it will be seeking $150,000 in damages.

The U.S. Copyright Group will begin the second round of lawsuits starting August 1st, says THR, with up to 45,000 more suits expected.

We will keep you updated.

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Boxee CPO Zach Klein has released a video today showing off a production model of the highly anticipated Boxee Box.

The video implies that Boxee will begin mass production on the box now, with a release date not too far in the future.

Boxee's "sinking box" design is still intact, but it has been given a slightly more refined look and a more fingerprint-resistant finish.

The Box is a media hub, as well as a set-top box, whose primary purpose is to stream music, photos and video from within a local network or use streaming services such as Pandora and video sites.

Boxee Box uses a fast NVIDIA Tegra chipset, which will allow for 1080p video playback and hardware-accelerated Flash 10.1.

The hardware is expected to sell for $180.

The first Boxee Box arrived from the D-Link Factory from Zach Klein on Vimeo.

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